The Best Watches Of Baselworld 2016

The New Timepieces Every Watch Nerd Is Getting Excited About

Baselworld, the largest watch show on God's green Earth, kicked off in Switzerland last week. This is the place where the world's most desirable brands unveil their finest new timepieces for the year ahead amid the kind of bombast and ceremony that only the luxury goods market can muster. There are literally thousands of watches on display. Hundreds of thousands of people to look at and lust after them. All manner of complications. Much ticking of tocks.

AskMen was there, of course, and below, you'll find our pick of the best new watches from Baselworld 2016. Where dress watches dominated SIHH back in January, it was sports watches that stole the show in Basel (although there are one or two classic models that you really ought to see, too).

Let us know what you think in the comments below because frankly, we need to narrow our selection down. Our wish list (wrist list?) is getting, well, as long as our arm.

Rolex Cosmograph Daytona

Rolex

The Daytona is a genuine icon of a watch, first unveiled in 1965 and today something of a standard-bearer when it comes to motoring watches. For this 2016 model, the key design update is the black ceramic bezel, made from a patented and nigh-on scratchproof material. The monochrome design is easy to read and easy to love but get your orders in fast. The waiting list for current models is four to five years.

Bremont Regatta OTUSA

Bremont

British upstarts Nick and Giles English continue to steer their young brand in interesting directions with this sailing watch, designed in partnership with Americas Cup defenders Oracle Team USA. Most notable is the 15-minute Regatta counter and a 5-minute countdown, both said to be useful when racing a bloody big boat. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's also water resistant to 100m.

Zenith Elite 6150

Zenith

This watch was first unveiled at Baselworld last year, so admittedly we're just talking new clothes here – but the Elite 6150 does wear the rose gold rather well. About as elegant a dress watch as you're likely to find peeking out from your cuff, it has an in-house movement with an impressive four-day power reserve. A worthy timepiece for Zenith's 150th anniversary last year and no less charming in its new get-up.

Omega Speedmaster "CK2998" Limited Edition

Omega

If we were putting together a head-to-head deathmatch from this year's show, we'd be tempted to throw this mighty contender into the arena with Rolex's Daytona. Like that model, this is based on a hugely collectible chronograph from the past, with a dark bezel and sub-dials offering stark good looks against a white background. If there's something giving a slight advantage to Omega, it's the fact that this limited edition Speedmaster is toting the brand's Calibre 1861, the movement that went into the very first Moonwatch. Even so, this one's too close to call.

Tag Heuer Monza Chronograph

Tag Heuer

In 1976, Jack Heuer designed a watch to celebrate Niki Lauder's first championship win with Ferrari. This is a reissue of that model, its racing heritage there for all to see in the sporty dashboard stylings inside a distinctive cushion-shaped case. The key features are the pulsometer and tachymeter skirting the edge, even if your eye is drawn to the two symmetrical dials (a minute chronograph and running seconds) and that handsome perforated strap. A timepiece for proper petrolheads.

Tudor Black Bay 36mm

Tudor

The old adage about good things and small packages finds a neat expression in the latest version of Tudor's hugely successful Black Bay line. You don't get a great many men's watches at 36mm but this one retains it simple, masculine good looks on the wrist. Tudor offers some of the most affordable in-house movements on the market, but sadly that's not the case with the 36mm. Even so, this watch is proof that you don't need a watch the size of a hand grenade to turn heads.

Nomos Glashutte Tetra Neomatik

Nomos Glashutte

Clean lines and minimalism are what Nomos is all about, and those qualities are given a stark, masculine vibe in the latest version of the square-shaped model first seen last autumn. Our own Watch Snob regularly trumpets this brand as among the best value in the world, and here's more evidence he's right. Its new self-winding, in-house movement is not just pleasingly accurate but a mere 3.2mm thick, making the Neomatik a slender slice of top-quality watchmaking.

Citizen Eco-Drive One

Citizen

One of the surprise packages of Baselworld 2016 was this astonishingly thin model from Citizen. The case is 2.98mm thick, housing a movement that measures a single millimetre. By anyone's measure, that's impressive. Created with a Goldilocks composite material that is malleable to wrap around the wrist but strong enough to withstand the wearer's movements, it runs on Citizen's light-powered Eco-Drive technology has been powering its watches since the seventies. Look out for it in the autumn.

Tissot Heritage 1936

Tissot

Wristwatches first began to take over from pocket watches in the 1930s as practicality started to make more sense than tradition. That decade is fondly referenced in this reinterpretation of a 1936 piece from the Tissot archives. The numerals, seconds dial and practically everything on the face is faithfully remade here, although the best bit is hidden. When you removed the strap on the original model, the wearer could open the back of the case like a pocket watch and see the mechanical movement inside. The same is true here – a romantic bit of whimsy that offers no practical function beyond raising a smile.

Shinola Canfield

Shinola

The Detroit brand known and loved for its big, American-made watches unveiled this new chronograph at Baselworld, with a thinner bezel than usual and a big, open, inviting dial. A degree more refined than what we're used to from Shinola, this is something closer to a dress watch, at least compared to its chunky weekenders, although it's no less hardy. A subtle and successful change of pace.

Monsieur de Chanel

Chanel

Lauded as Chanel's first ever watch designed specifically for men, this is also notable for containing the French fashion house's first in-house movement, the Calibre 1. It's a deliberately enigmatic design, with a "jumping" hour display at 6 o'clock, where you might expect to find the date. From there, track your eye upwards to separate dials for minutes and hours. A definite talking point of a watch, this will be limited to 150 models each in beige gold and white gold.

Breitling Avenger Hurricane

Breitling

Breitling make big watches. Macho watches. They do it well and without apology. The new Hurricane is no different, except in one regard: it is shockingly light on the wrist for a watch that measures 50mm. Made of a new custom material that is 3.3 times lighter than titanium and 5.8 times lighter than steel, this is a bruiser with a light touch. The material is also anti-corrosive and scratch resistant and the whole thing is kept running by the brand's suitably muscular in-house chronograph movement, the B12.

Patek Philippe Ref. 5930G World Time Chronograph

Patek Philippe

One for the true Watch Snobs is this from Patek Philippe. Combining the Genevan power house's world time mechanism with a self-winding chronograph, it's an irresistible example of high-end watchmaking. There's a lot going on on the dial, yet it's somehow easy to read and the central guilloche pattern (manually made, that) is completely hypnotic.

Seiko Prospex Special Edition PADI Automatic Diver's SRPA21

Seiko

On Seiko's stand, we spotted an impressive new Grand Seiko with an eight-day power reserve. They're only making eight of those, though, so we thought we'd highlight this ultra affordable diver's watch instead. The only one in the world to be accredited by PADI, it is waterproof to 200m, and inside the 45mm steel case is an in-house Seiko movement. That you get that for less than £400 is nothing short of staggering.

Hublot Big Bang Meca-10

Hublot

Designed for anyone who messed around with Meccano as a child, this watch lays bare its own mechanics for its owner to stare at for hours. Built with a new mechanical movement, it has 223 components, most of which are visible to the naked eye. Somehow, the thing still looks like a clean bit of engineering in a sleek, micro-blasted titanium case. There are serious watchmaking chops here too: the movement has a 10-day power reserve.